i'll fight it out. >> reporter: john will never forget the moments from december 7th 1941 when he was stationed in pearl harbor hawaii. >> and i was on the battle ship uss west virginia, a great big monstrous thing. and i looked out and there i saw a plane headed for my ship. >> reporter: then he felt six torpedoes hit. >> and all hell broke out. the ship began to lift. had great big holes in the port side. fortunately we had an outstanding crew on that ship. >> reporter: he is one of only a few of them left. he's 92 years old but his memories are as sharp as ever. he attended this memorial service on coast guard island this morning. and we sat down to talk about the darkest moments of that day. >> and what i did i would grab the sailors hair and pull it just as hard as i could. if i got a moan, a groan or a sign of life, i would take him out to the other group of sailors to get him medical help. because i didn't have time to take out dead bodies. and there were a lot of them. >> reporter: more than 100 people died on the uss west virginia, but not roshkel. >> those bullets are terrib